Healthy Housing Indicator Report

Collaborators/Partners:

Purpose:

The Alameda County Healthy Homes Alliance was seeking a baseline to begin new efforts to improve housing conditions for lower income residents in Alameda County and Oakland. They knew that many neighborhoods had high levels of lead paint contamination, and that residents of those neighborhoods also suffered from other health conditions, so they engaged our services to build a data profile that would document the situation. This partnership was intended to produce a clear data profile and a set of baseline indicators to aid them in their planning and to support their advocacy for a pro-active rental inspection policy that would lead to improved health outcomes for renters. We determined several areas of focus with the Alliance and many of these would require us accessing public data that had never been shared locally.

Results:

We produced a public report for the Alliance that folded in the wide range of data snapshots, maps and analyses we conducted to inform their planning efforts. We managed to access many new datasets for use in this project, which we also published openly for others to take advantage of, as part of our commitment to open data. The report illuminated a number of issues that previously were informed only by anecdotes; now a solid body of information can be used to explain the need for new policies and programs, as data from code enforcement, blight, mold cases, health outcomes and more came together and painted a clear picture of need.